Norwegian Air, Op. 7

• Halvorsen composed Air norvégien in 1896. It is one of his many works for violin and orchestra / piano. Halvorsen was Norway’s leading violin virtuoso during his lifetime.¹
• Halvorsen wrote this piece while he was studying in Germany on a travel grant for Norwegian artists. During the trip he took classes with Joseph Joachim and heard the Ring Cycle at Bayreuth.²

“I am now in the midst of work on a major violin composition. It will either be devilishly good, or it will be rubbish. Let’s hope the former. I work from morning till evening. I also write things that I end up throwing in the wastepaper basket, but something good will come of it in the end.”

Johan Halvorsen, writing to his wife while he was composing this work in Berlin. He’s either referring to the Norwegian Air or to the Norwegian Dances for violin and piano, written at the same time.³

“A folk-tune medley, but so well done that the result is a work of art.”

Edvard Grieg, on Halvorsen’s Norwegian Air⁴

1. Øyvin Dybsand, “Halvorsen, Johan,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed October 17, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000012262.
2. Øyvin Dybsand, liner notes to Johan Halvorsen: Orchestral Works Vol. 2, Marianne Thorsen, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Neeme Järvi, Chandos 10614, CD, 2010.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.